Will voting out the school board make the school calendar sane again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

Most teachers would tell you that five day weeks are better.

Teachers will also tell you that they need teacher work days during the school year. So how are they going to have those and also have 5 day weeks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

This needs to change, look at the 2027 spring break. MARCH 22-26 with another June 17 last day. This is a big difference to the 2025 calendar which had spring break April 14-18 and the last day on June 11. That is 12 weeks post spring break a full month longer than 2025! In fact the post spring break stretch is even longer than the winter break to spring break stretch! Spring break should be moved a week or two later.

The problem is the end date, not Spring Break.

No, the end date is the same every year, Spring Break swings widely based on when Easter is that year. Spring Break should be the first week of April or the week after quarter end every year like it is in most of the country.

LOL, if the end date was the same every year, then we'd be done in early June. It's been getting further and further into June every year.

Most people like Spring Break the way it is, but starting way earlier and ending way later are a real problem.

Most people DON'T like spring break the way it shifts a few do but MOST DO NOT! Spring break should be secular based ex 1st week of April or post 3rd quarter.
I do agree that starting earlier and ending later is a problem that must be fixed. The school year should end two weeks sooner then it does.

FCPS tried to disconnect Spring Break from Easter a few years ago and it failed horribly. Unless you can get all the school systems to play along, it simply won't happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And when will the opportunity arise?

What do you consider a sane calendar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

So screw the elementary school kids because lazy seniors can't do applications on the weekend?

Not exactly a winning argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And when will the opportunity arise?

What do you consider a sane calendar?

Something that is not this calendar? I mean, do you really have to ask? Are you an unemployed childless person?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

So screw the elementary school kids because lazy seniors can't do applications on the weekend?

Not exactly a winning argument.

It screws the high school kids and especially seniors because the year ends so late in June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

So screw the elementary school kids because lazy seniors can't do applications on the weekend?

Not exactly a winning argument.

It screws the high school kids and especially seniors because the year ends so late in June.

+1
It is bad for all. Sports camps start before that. Orientations at colleges start earlier than that. Lots of opportunities for enrichment activities. DS had only one opportunity to go to orientation because his was so late (only good thing--he couldn't go to Beach Week.)

[Anonymous]

The school year needs to end earlier. They need to wrap it up by Memorial Day or shortly thereafter because the longer you go after MD, the more wasted time there is. The high schoolers finish their AP tests in mid-May and everyone finishes their SOL’s by the mid to late May time frame as well. So what are they doing after Memorial Day? Movies, the educational “apps” for elementary school, field days and school spirit days, assemblies … the entire last week of school last year, people were picking up early and no one really cared. They’re just running out the clock.

I feel for the HSers feeling like they need more breaks to get caught up on stuff midway through the year. But all the mid year breaks leads to almost a whole month of wasted time at the end of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

Did you just stumble across this message board? Do you even have kids in FCPS?

[Anonymous]

I also think there should be some sort of requirement that the school board members either must have children attending the school system currently, or within the past 5 years (or some reasonable length of time). People with a vested interest in the schools their children attend are likely to at least attempt to do better.

Amen. Hallelujah.

[Anonymous]

I thought they sent an email out this year saying they were going to revisit the calendars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If by some miracle, blue no matter who fairfax county manages to vote in something that resembles a bipartisan school board, we might be able to get a slightly saner calendar with more consistency.

So the short answer is no


A moderate will never get elected in Fairfax county again, once Pat Herrity retires or loses, so the trajectory of this school board will continue.

Because the only non Dem options were all Moms for Liberty types and not moderates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And when will the opportunity arise?

Unfortunately not this year.

They were voted in after this type of calendar had already been in place. They were just elected in 2023! You have to wait until 2027 but, unless you organize at a stupendous level and make sure the Rs don’t nominate nuts again, the existing board or their successors will win.

This is absolutely key. When you have climate change deniers and book banners running for the school board, they're not going to win. Run some moderates that most of us can vote for!

I also think there should be some sort of requirement that the school board members either must have children attending the school system currently, or within the past 5 years (or some reasonable length of time). People with a vested interest in the schools their children attend are likely to at least attempt to do better.

I agree but who has the time and willingness to do it? I know I don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the O days were a great compromise without having so few full weeks. Students need full 5 day weeks for routine and consistency. If more holidays need to be observed - put the teacher work days around them as well. As a teacher - I would rather have one long weekend that includes a work day and a religious holiday than 2 weeks of 4 day weeks. The one week difference is not a huge change in what is in my grade book and I can easily make changes after the bulk of the work is done for grading.

The O days were awful for Grades 7-12. We couldn't teach anything new, test over anything, do any projects, or do anything meaningful, and the students knew it. Behavior issues were horrendous becuse we were babysitting bored teenagers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

This needs to change, look at the 2027 spring break. MARCH 22-26 with another June 17 last day. This is a big difference to the 2025 calendar which had spring break April 14-18 and the last day on June 11. That is 12 weeks post spring break a full month longer than 2025! In fact the post spring break stretch is even longer than the winter break to spring break stretch! Spring break should be moved a week or two later.

The problem is the end date, not Spring Break.

No, the end date is the same every year, Spring Break swings widely based on when Easter is that year. Spring Break should be the first week of April or the week after quarter end every year like it is in most of the country.

LOL, if the end date was the same every year, then we'd be done in early June. It's been getting further and further into June every year.

Most people like Spring Break the way it is, but starting way earlier and ending way later are a real problem.

For the past several years, we have ended school in mid June - like around June 17th. Maybe you have older children and remember what it was like 10 years ago, but mid June is normal. What's not normal is spring break moving around like crazy. I think you'd be surprised but "most people" probably disagree with you. It's very expensive to travel when spring break is around easter. That's the reason I don't like it. I don't care about easter, I care about being able to travel for a reasonable price, and it's just really expensive because of how FCPS does spring break.